You rubbed your eyes which were red and puffy from crying. You cursed under your breath for crying again in front of them. You hadn’t even cried once in front of the werewolves before and you had done it twice in front of the hunters now.

A knock on the door made you quickly cover your head with the sheets on Zico’s bed. Just as he had told them to, P.O and Taeil took you to his room. “Come in.” You said loudly as you patted your eyes while under the blanket. You didn’t want to look pitiful in front of them.

“How are you feeling?”

You recognized the voice as B-Bomb.

“Just swell.” You answered. You heard footsteps toward you and soon a tug came upon the sheet covering your head. You hadn’t expected it, causing the sheet to slide harmlessly off of you. You looked up, locking eyes with B-Bomb. “I’ll be fine so if you could leave for awhile that’d be great.”

“I can tell you cried.” B-Bomb laughed a bit at the puffiness of your eyes, causing you to become annoyed.

“Hurry up and go will you?”

B-Bomb stopped laughing and a frown replaced his smile, “You won’t tell me why?” He sat on the bed as he faced you. He saw your stubborn eyes glaring at him and he sighed, “Fine. Don’t tell me. Let everyone downstairs continue coming up with all kinds of crazy reasons as to why-“

“You want to know why?” You interrupted him abruptly. He quieted at once and let you continue, “Because no one told me I’d like you guys so much to the point of not wanting you all to get hurt. To the point of wanting to see you all happy.”

B-Bomb didn’t understand you for the first time since he had met you. You seemed angry for whatever reason. He was silent for a moment before he finally spoke, “Well, despite how we all act, we are happy. No worrying needed there.”

That was the problem. They were happy now. However, because of what you were soon going to do, that happiness would disappear.

“Dammit!” Hoya snarled in frustration as he looked around the woods again. “Where the hell did it go?” Sungjong ran up behind him and looked around as well.

“Lost it again?”

“I don’t even understand its movements. It keeps leading us further and further into hunter territory.” Hoya responded as he inspected the ground for any disturbed ground.

“Not only that,” Sungjong got into a defensive stance as he heard the sound of a bush moving in the wind. He went calm once he realized there was no one there, “The hunters haven’t even showed up yet to defend their ground. Not that I want them to, but just where are they?”

Hoya flinched as he caught onto the scent again, “Gotcha.” He smirked as he ran forward, off into the direction he smelled his prey in.

Sungjong sighed as the chase was on again, “That silver wolf. What does it want from us? Why lead us deeper into their territory?” He questioned out loud before following after Hoya.

As the hunters had decided, as soon as Zico got better, you all found yourselves staring down the stairway in the woods.

“Ready?” Zico asked all around and you couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if you said no. Would he really put this investigation off further? You didn’t think so. After coming this far, it was highly unlikely Zico had any means of turning back.

No one objected to him and he took steady steps down the staircase. B-Bomb followed after him, keeping an eye on what was in front of him to avoid having Zico get hurt again. Kyung, Jaehyo, U-Kwon and Taeil all followed as well. P.O. pushed you to move forward, not catching onto your hesitation, or rather the real reason why you were hesitant.

You gulped down and descended down the steps, pulling a glow stick from your pocket and cracking it in the process. It shone in the darkness, leading your way downward.

Soon, all of you were face to face with the door Zico was talking about. It was large and looked as though you could break it by merely kicking it down. However, Zico had said he tried both that and shooting at the lock to no avail. Now, he pulled out the key you all had acquired at the mayor’s house. Your heartbeat pounded as he positioned the key above the keyhole on the lock and pushed it in.

“What if it doesn’t work?” U-Kwon suddenly asked out of nowhere. You let go of the breath you were holding and hit him on the shoulder, using your actions to tell him to shut it.

Zico shot him a glare before slowly turning the key to the right. There was an audible click before the lock broke off and fell from the door. All of you were completely quiet as you all gaped at what just happened.

“It unlocked.” Zico announced, despite it being obvious.

“Well open the door then.” Kyung rushed the leader, his anxiousness getting the better of him. Zico did not retaliate and instead did as he said. Zico gripped onto the door handle and dragged it to the left, finding it opened with only a little difficulty. B-Bomb helped him push it the rest of the way left until it was completely open.

Kyung took a step forward, eager as always. Zico stopped him by throwing out his arm. He tossed the glow stick in his hand through the doorway and let it tumble forward. What it lit up made your eyes widen in surprise. Everything was iron. Walkways made of iron and ceilings made of iron beams. The metal was slightly rusted at some places and dust flew everywhere from being disturbed after so long. There was something disturbing about the slight blue light that shone from the inner depths that made you not want to venture further. However, now was not the time to cower away again.

Zico took one step forward hesitantly while motioning all of you to follow him, “Okay, let’s go.”

A figure stumbled through the woods as they caught their breath. They looked behind them swiftly before running forward barefooted, feet crushing the leaves as they ran. They had finally reached the clearing they were running for and now were sprinting towards a tree in front of them.

They quickly grabbed the long raincoat they had hidden earlier that day at the foot of the tree and slipped it over their body. Now, they set their sights onto the tree in front of them. They jumped as high as they could and grabbed hold of a low branch. As quick as they could, they scrambled up the tree. 

They heard yelling behind them and breathed out heavily, climbing the tree as high as they could without their view from the ground being seen. When they were a safe distance away they stopped and waited for the owners of the voices who were running after them to appear.

Hoya looked around the place he was now, not recognizing his surroundings. He looked around as he sniffed the air, the smell of the person he was chasing was here. Still, where were they? He could smell them as though they were right next to him.

“Did you find them?” Sungjong emerged from the forest followed by Sungyeol. The two of them looked around and caught onto the same thing Hoya did.

Woohyun came bounding from the forest next, followed closely by Dongwoo and Myungsoo. “Nothing?” Woohyun asked as all six of them crowded around the center of the clearing.

Sunggyu showed up next. He had been making sure the silver wolf they were chasing didn’t double back and try to escape by tricking them into hunter territory, “That wolf’s here.” He acknowledged the other’s initial reasonings.

“But where?” Dongwoo looked all around but couldn’t spot anything.

Sungjong looked upwards, scanning the trees as everyone else spread out and looked into different directions of the small clearing. While looking up, he almost stumbled into a wall made of stone. He was about to simply overlook it when he smelled something.

“Hunter,” He whispered as he followed the wall until he came across a stairway. “Hyungs! Hyungs!” He yelled out in urgency. The rest of the wolves quickly stopped their search and went to him. He pointed down the stairs once they had gathered around him, “Hunters! The hunters are down there!”

“That means we can continue our search up here without rushing,” Dongwoo was about to finish his statement when Hoya interrupted him suddenly.

“Not only the hunters.” Hoya narrowed his eyes as he stared into the abyss down the stairway. “She’s down there too.”

“What?” Sunggyu questioned as he pushed his way past the other hunters and quickly descended the stairs, not needing any other reason to investigate. The others followed just as worried and conflicted. All but one that is.

Myungsoo stared down the stairs before looking up at the trees. He heard only silence around him. He looked back down the stairs and gave in, descending downward into the unknown.

The figure leaped down from the branches they hid themselves in after they no longer heard the sounds of the werewolves moving about. They looked towards the mouth of the stairway and smiled wearily. A soothing voice came out of their mouth, “I’m doing this so you can survive Hyunjoo. Please make it out of there alive.”

Swiftly, they sprinted back into the forest and disappeared. 

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A/N:

I was busy all day today and could only have free time just now. Apologies everyone! Even I wanted to finish everything earlier so I could update this story.

As for the chapter, the werewolves went in after Hyunjoo! What's going to happen? I know I say this all the time but you're going to have to wait until the next update to find out~